Society's ChildS


Christmas Tree

Alaska becomes 3rd state to legalize marijuana, DC will soon be 4th


RT
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:06 UTC
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© Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
Alaska has joined Colorado and Washington in legalizing recreational marijuana, and the District of Columbia will follow suit on Thursday this week.

The new laws allow adults over 21 to consume small quantities of home-grown pot in private, though sales remain illegal.


Comment: It seems a little strange to legalize smoking marijuana but still have sales be illegal. They are either naive or dumb to think that people are not going to buy marijuana instead of growing it themselves. Have the Alaskan lawmakers beat their constituents to the punch on marijuana use?


Ballot initiatives legalizing personal marijuana consumption were approved by voters in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, DC last November. Alaska's law went into effect on Tuesday, while Oregon's Measure 91 is scheduled to take effect in July this year.

Initiative 71 legalizing the private consumption of marijuana in DC will take effect later this week on Thursday, according to a statement released by Mayor Muriel Bowser [PDF].

According to the announcement by Mayor Bowser, adults aged 21 and older will be able to lawfully possess up to two ounces of marijuana and use it on private property. They will also be allowed to transfer up to one ounce of marijuana to another person, "as long as no money, goods or services are exchanged and the recipient is 21 years of age or older," and grow upwards of six plants a piece.


Comment: Another rather dumb insistence by DC legislators. No one is "transferring" marijuana freely to anyone else. Shouldn't they stop with the pretense already and allow the sales of a small amount if they are going to legalize consumption?

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Star of David

94 year old ex-Nazi sergeant charged with murders from time at Auschwitz


NY Daily News
Mon, 23 Feb 2015 23:46 UTC
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© APThe main gate of the Auschwitz death camp complex in occupied-Poland. German prosecutors have charged a 94-year-old man with 3,681 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he worked as a sergeant at the camp.
German prosecutors have charged a 94-year-old man with 3,681 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served in the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp.

Schwerin prosecutors' spokesman Stefan Urbanek said Monday the suspect was an SS sergeant who served as a medic in Auschwitz in an SS hospital. In that role, Urbanek said the man helped the extermination camp function and could thus be charged as an accessory to the 1944 killings.

Urbanek wouldn't release the suspect's name in line with privacy laws.

The man is one of 30 former Auschwitz suspects against whom federal investigators recommended in 2013 that state prosecutors pursue charges under a new precedent in German law.

His attorney, Peter-Michael Diestel, told the Bild newspaper there's no evidence of any "concrete criminal act" by his client.

Comment: The hunt will never end until everyone still alive from WWII is dead.

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Handcuffs

Heart wrenching: Cop brutally attacks 78-year-old grandmother for delivering cupcakes to her grandchildren

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 23:12 UTC
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78-year-old grandmother Mary Poole was brutally assaulted and pepper-sprayed by a police officer when she attempted to deliver cupcakes to her grandchildren at school.

The children's parents are in the midst of a divorce and custody battle, so Mary wanted to do something nice for the children. She decided to deliver a gift in a neutral setting.

"I hadn't seen my granddaughters for some time and I wanted to see them, and so I baked some cupcakes and bought some cookies for my granddaughters' classroom," Mary said.

When she arrived at the school she was met by a rude Clovis Unified police officer who told her that she was not allowed to visit the children because there was a restraining order against her. In reality, there was no restraining order against her and no legal reason to keep her out of the school.

The officer was either lying or was totally mistaken about the situation.

Comment: This is so heartbreaking and completely uncalled for! There doesn't seem to be any humanity left in the United States.

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Stormtrooper

Barbarism! Florida deputy drags mentally ill woman through courthouse by the shackles on her feet

Rafael Olmeda
The Sun-Sentinel
Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:39 UTC
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© Sun Sentinel
As mentally incompetent woman screams in pain, deputy drags her through hallway by her shackled feet.

Public defender wants deputy charged for dragging woman through hallway by her feet.

Deputy says he feared woman was going to cause a commotion, so he dragged her.

A veteran Broward Sheriff's deputy who dragged a mentally incompetent woman through a courthouse hallway by the shackles around her ankles is now on restricted duty. Christopher Johnson, who joined the department in 1988, will not have contact with inmates until an Internal Affairs investigation is complete, the Sheriff's Office said. Johnson was recorded pulling Dasyl Jeanette Rios, 28, by the chain binding her feet together on the third floor of the Broward courthouse Monday morning.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel issued a statement six hours later questioning Johnson's conduct.
"I am concerned by the way the deputy handled this situation, because there were other courses of action he could have taken," Sheriff Scott Israel said. "Internal Affairs has initiated a complete and comprehensive investigation, and the deputy has been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome."The incident was caught on cellphone video by attorney Bill Gelin, who was in the hallway as the events unfolded. Witnesses and some who saw the video afterward decried the deputy's conduct as inhumane. Public Defender Howard Finkelstein called it criminal.

Rios, 28, who had just been declared mentally incompetent during a trespassing and criminal mischief case, sobs and pleads with Johnson in the video. "Stop! You're hurting me!" she screams. "You're ****ing hurting me! I hate my life! I wish they would kill me already! Why do I have to be alive?" "I gave you a chance ..." Johnson says. "You didn't give nobody a chance," she yells back. "All I wanted to do was sob for a few minutes — cry. That's all I wanted to do was cry for a few minutes."

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Conscience: Franchise owner sells corporate gifts to give employees bonuses

Dominic Kelly
Opposing Views
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:00 UTC
Tom Barnett
The owner of a Burger King franchise in Arizona was thrilled to have won the company's national "Franchisee of the Year" award, but instead of keeping the Corvette and Rolex watch he was awarded, he and the other franchise owners decided to sell them, add in some more of their own money and give all of their employees across the state bonuses.

Tom Barnett, owner of Barnett Management, won the coveted prize thanks to high ratings, great customer service reviews and stellar corporate inspections, but when it came time to enjoy the flashy prizes he received, Barnett and the other franchise owners decided they wanted to sell them.

"The award needed to go to the people who got us here. It was the right thing to do," franchise co-owner Shelley Krispin said. "We're all better when we have people who work for us long term."

Comment: Fast food and other minimum wage employees have a difficult time making ends meet. It's nice to see an employer who actually seems to care about those who make his living possible. It would make a huge difference in communities if more employers gave some consideration to making it possible for people to earn a living wage.

Detroit restaurant: It's possible to pay $15/hr wages and still make money

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Eye 1

What Facebook sees when you fall in love

Robinson Meyer
The Atlantic
Sat, 15 Feb 2014 20:42 UTC
love
© Reuters/Mian Khursheed
Facebook might understand your romantic prospects better than you do.

In a blog post, the company's team of data scientists announced that statistical evidence hints at budding relationships before the relationships start.

As couples become couples, Facebook data scientist Carlos Diuk writes, the two people enter a period of courtship, during which timeline posts increase. After the couple makes it official, their posts on each others' walls decrease—presumably because the happy two are spending more time together.

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Black Cat

When psychopaths are that sickeningly obvious: Judge calls Olympia animal cruelty case 'truly disturbing'

Jeff Burnside
Komonews
Mon, 23 Feb 2015 20:18 UTC
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Without conscience
A Thurston County deputy prosecutor says what was found at an Olympia man's home is the worst case of animal abuse she's ever seen.

David Williford was charged Monday afternoon with 12 counts of animal cruelty for holding dozens of rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and dogs in "horrific" conditions.


Deputy Prosecutor Christen Anton Peters described it in court like a scene from a horror movie, complete with blood spatters, filth and carcasses strewn about Williford's basement and backyard.

Authorities rescued dozens more animals still alive but described as desperate for food and water.

Williford's defense attorney says it was simply an unsanitary slaughterhouse for meat that Williford intended to eat, and has eaten routinely. He allegedly got the animals using Craigslist.

Williford is charged with six counts of first degree animal abuse and six of second degree animal abuse.

Comment: There is also Robert Hare's books Without Conscience and Snakes in Suits as well as Martha Stout's The Sociopath Next Door.

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Attention

Commuter train derails after collision with truck in Southern California


RT
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 23:21 UTC
trail derailment oxnard CA
© Reuters/ Lucy NicholsonA police officer stands at the scene of a double-decker Metrolink train derailment in Oxnard, California February 24, 2015.
At least 30 people were reportedly injured early Tuesday when a commuter train derailed in the Southern California city of Oxnard.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a spokesperson for Metrolink — the LA area's passenger rail system — said that the pre-dawn crash occurred just before 6 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning when a commuter train collided with a tractor trailer.

Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson told the Times that three train cars detailed due to the collision and at least 30 people were injured. Three hours after the crash, Fox News reported that the number of injured victims had reached 51, including four people in critical condition.
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Star of David

Jaw-dropping hypocrisy: U.S. jury orders Palestinian government to pay families $218 million for 'terror attacks' against Israel


RT
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 04:58 UTC
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© Reuters/Ammar Awad
A federal jury has ruled that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority supported terror attacks which killed dozens of people in Israel a decade ago, and must now pay $218.5 million in damages.

The damages were announced after two days of deliberation by the jury, which decided the defendants helped facilitate deadly shootings and bombings attributed to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas in Israel in the early 2000s - attacks that killed 33 people and wounded more than 400 others. The plaintiffs were 10 American families affected by six specific attacks, including the 2002 bombing of a Hebrew University cafeteria and a 2004 suicide bombing on a public bus in Jerusalem.

"The message is clear," Kent Yalowitz, the Arnold & Porter LLP partner who represented the plaintiffs, told The Wall Street Journal. "If you kill or injure Americans, the long arm of the American law will come after you."


Comment: BS! That is only true when it suits America. Where is the justice for all of the innocent men, women and children the U.S. has funded to be tortured and murdered in Palestine? How about the Americans (and soldiers) killed and injured in the mythical war on terror? The occupation of Iraq? Afghanistan?


Comment: What interesting timing considering the impending war crime charges. It's amazing that these lawyers could spin such a Pro-Israeli tale - again, making the victim, Gaza, the enemy.

See also: Israeli violence against Palestinians - New York Times' editorial techniques keep Israel looking good

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Smiley

Legalize it: Alaska becomes third state to decriminalize and regulate recreational marijuana

M. David and Jackson Marciana
Counter Current News
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:50 UTC
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Alaska Cannabis Club CEO Charlo Greene stands behind a counter at a dispensary in Juneau
Alaska has just become the third state in the U.S. to make smoking, growing and owning recreational amounts of marijuana completely legal. Alaska follows Colorado and Washington state in moving forward on drug policies and decriminalization, leaving behind the failed prohibition and so-called "war on drugs" that has proven to be an abject failure.

The measure just barely passed in November in the Republican-leaning state. The move follows Colorado and Washington in lock step, revealing that tide in public perception is really changing with regards to legalizing the marijuana plant. Oregon is soon to follow, having passed legislation to legalize, which has nevertheless not yet gone into effect.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but as we reported last weekend, that could soon change too.

Under Alaska's new laws on marijuana, anyone who is 21 or older can now own and keep an ounce of marijuana on hand, and grow up to six plants, three of which are permitted to be flowering.
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